
If I write a bogus lease to help a borrower qualify for a mortgage, it is bank fraud. I can't go there.
HOWEVER: If I came up with a scheme to loan billions in bad mortgages, fund them with worthless mortgage-backed securities I sell to institutional investors like pensions and retirement funds, then the whole thing falls like the house of cards it is, I can retire to the Caribbean.
I'm not saying the guys in the field shouldn't be regulated the way we are; I am saying that those up top in the corporate Ivory Tower who destroyed the economy ought to be held accountable for their wrongdoing as well.
If the regulating authorities examine d the complete unsustainability of the mortgage products being hawked from 2003-2007 and spent a little less time measuring the font of my name compared to that of my company, we'd all be far better off. Regulate the guys on the bottom; fine. But keep your eye on the fellows at the top too, please Uncle Sam?